Knoxville, TN – The Tennessee Valley Authority is taking over security at its nuclear power plants.
The nation's largest public utility has contracted guard services for its Browns Ferry, Sequoyah and Watts Bar nuclear stations in Alabama and Tennessee since 2002 from Pinkerton Government Services.
That contract, for which TVA has paid about $159 million over six years for a security force of about 500 employees, expires Oct. 31.
The return to an all-TVA guard force, like TVA had prior to 2002, should occur over the next fiscal year.
TVA Chief Nuclear Officer Bill Campbell said Tuesday the agency's decision to employ its own guards is intended to improve ``management controls and lines of communications with the security work force.''
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)